Urinary incontinence, in which the ordinary bodily muscle functions fail to prevent unintended leakage of urine, is a common malady among women, particularly older women. It is estimated that up to 50% of women occasionally leak urine involuntarily, and that approximately 25% of women will seek medical advice at some point in order to deal with the problem. Stress incontinence, the most common type of urinary incontinence, refers to the involuntary loss of urine resulting from abdominal pressure rise, occurring during exercise, coughing, sneezing, laughing, etc. When stress incontinence occurs, it is usually the result of the abnormal descent of the urethra and bladder neck below the level of the pelvic floor. Many women wear sanitary napkins or diapers in order to deal with incontinence, and some women resort to surgical procedures.
Pessary devices are known to help relieve involuntary urination in a female. Such devices are designed for arrangement in the vagina for compressive action on and support of the bladder. Typical pessary devices are large in diameter during use, and can elastically expand, inflate, or unfold to provide compressive action within the vagina. Such pessary devices can be uncomfortable for a user and/or can require the user to activate or operate the device prior to or upon insertion of the pessary device into the vagina. This can result in an undesirable usage experience.
Further, the insertion process can pose additional obstacles. Some pessary devices require digital insertion into the body which may not be preferred. A preferred insertion method for many consumers is via an applicator. However, due to the size of the pessary needed to be effective and the desire to have minimal applicator sizes, the insertion process can create an undesirable usage experience. Some pessaries can also expand within an applicator increasing the force needed to expel the pessary upon insertion. Depending on the user's dexterity and hand strength, this can be problematic for many of the consumers wishing to use the product.
As such, there remains a need for a pessary device which can be more easily inserted via an applicator and deliver improved comfort.